Dana Tsai
487200635
Tobey Hsieh 487200271
Cindy Chien 487200245
Medieval Report on "The Nun's Priest's Tale"
Summery－
The story of “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” takes place in a farm
where a widow and her two daughters live. Besides them, they keep
livestock on the farm, including a cock called Chantecleer. He is a
cock of beautiful voice and feather, and he is pretty much in love
with a hen, Pertelote. They live peacefully on the farm until one day
Chantecleer wakes up from a nightmare. He tells Pertelote how
scared he is when he dreamed that a dog-like beast eat him alive.
Pertelote, on the other hand, laughs at his fear toward his
nightmare and suggests all these are due to some physical disorder
Chantecleer has. Convinced by her, Chantecleer no longer pays
attention to the dream. One day, however, his nightmare comes
true. A fox slides in the farm, cheats Chantercleer, and flees away
with the cock in his mouth. However, not being a smart fox,
Chantecleer tricks him in turn and makes him open his mouth. The
cock, then, got away from him.
Women’s Role－
Told by the nun’s priest, who was probably not held highly in
monasteries in Medieval time, this story directly reflects his state of
mind. Being an educated man surrounded by a bunch of nuns that
might not respect him much, it was pretty natural for him to be a
little mentally unbalanced. Therefore, he told this story, sarcastically,
and set a direct opposite to his position. In addition, this story
served the function as an escape for him, in which Chantecleer, the
only cock, was like a king and was so adored by the hens. Though
this in some way pointed out his status in the monastery, in his
words, there were actually many signs of anti-feminism.
The views to women in medieval time were revealed many
times in the story. At that period, women were no better than goods,
and were often considered unlucky. As in P. 211, it said, “In
beginning, woman is man’s ruin”. More than that, further in P. 213
and 215, it also pointed out women’s advice is “fatal”, because
women were stupid. Another solid evidence was the name
“Pertelote”, which means “One who confuses someone’s fate or lot.”
Though it was likely that Chaucer might be anti-anti-feminist for
in the story, it was male who listened to flattery and did stupid
things, we could still detect how women were looked down upon at
that time.
Beast Fable－
Usually beast fable is used for didactic purpose, authors write
stories of animals to teach readers religious or moral lessons. In the
Nun's Priest's Tale the battle between the cock and the fox also
brings two messages. One is to be cautious of flattery, and the
other is to hold one's tongue.
Because of the warning of the dream, Chanticleer should have
had the chance to escape the danger, but Pertelote's opinion
changes his mind. Even so, when the moment Chanticleer sees the
fox, he, too, should have had the chance to run away, but this time
the flattery makes him lost his clear mind. "Without suspecting
treason, Chanticleer/ Began to flap his wings, enchanted by/ The
fox's blandishments and flattery" (215). The fox's praise to
Chanticleer's "beautiful voice" drives his caution away, and easily
the fox grabs the cock—just with the little work of the tongue.
The tongue also brings the fox troubles, though. Right after
being caught, Chanticleer plays a trick and makes the fox talk. Yet
right at the moment the fox opens his mouth, Chanticleer gets his
chance to escape. "[M]ay God rather send/ Bad luck to him who
knows no better than/ To talk too much when he should hold his
tongue" (217). The fox learns the lesson of holding the tongue
when necessary, but it's too late now.
Despite the two lessons that fit the features of a beast fable,
the Nun's Priest's Tale is still unconventional in some way. For one
thing, the elaboration and humanization of the characters are rarely
seen in common beast fables. Usually the animal characters are
presented as of their original animal features, but in this tale, the
main characters are described to be human-like. Chanticleer, being
only a cock, is able to quote mythological and biblical literature, and
able to think in the abstract. Also the interaction between
Chanticleer and Pertelote is also more like man and wife than simply
cock and hen.
Mock Heroic Epic－
Epic conventions are usually long speeches, boasts and
challenges, epic catalogues, heroic battles and dreams of warning;
all of these elements can be discovered in the Nun's Priest's Tale.
First the cock dreams of death, and then he and the hen have a
dispute over whether the dream is a warning, in which the cock
makes a long speech and boasts; finally he gets a somewhat funny
battle with the fox.
The description of Chanticleer is also in a quite mocking way.
Chanticleer, as the heroic central character in this tale, is introduced
as the best of all kind—a "peerless cock." "[A]t crowing he'd no
peer" so it says.(203) Yet the truth is that "crowing" is not heroic at
all!
Metrical Romance－
In the Nun's Priest's Tale the description of Chanticleer makes
a reversal of traditional romance. Usually the female character,
either a lady or a princess, is presented with pages and lines to
describe her beauty. However, in this tale Chanticleer becomes the
"lady" and is presented with detail descriptions of his charm.
If we see the barnyard as the castle, Chanticleer would be the
king and Pertelote the queen. And in the tale Chanticleer is once
described as Priam the King of Troy, and hens the Roman Senator's
wives. Plus the courtly love between Chanticleer and Pertelote and
the battle between the fox and Chanticleer, this tale is in many ways
an interesting romance.
Allegory of Original Fall－
The story the Nun’s Priest’s told could be referred to the fall of
Adam in Bible. Because of the serpent’s vicious temptation, Eve ate
the forbidden fruit and furthermore, convinced Adam to eat it, too.
In Nun’s Priest’s tale, the fox played the role of the serpent, namely
the devil, which tempted Chanticleer by flattery. At this point,
Chanticleer and Pertelote shared the role of Eve. Chanticleer, as Eve,
believed in devil’s flattery because of pride and tempted to fall. On
the other hand, as Adam, Chanticleer listened to women’s advices
that lead to their fall. What’s more, regarding the setting, the
chicken yard was just the Garden of Eden for Chanticleer, where he
was just like a king spending happy and carefree days. However the
ending is not the same. After all Chanticleer escaped from the fox
and returned to his Garden of Eden, while Adam and Eve were
exiled from their paradise forever. Nevertheless, both of this story
and the Original Fall were teaching people to be alarmed at flattery
and not to be too proud to resist flattery.
Dreams－
According to some of Chaucer’s other poems, Chaucer was
quiet interested in dreams. Chaucer spent a great portion of Nun’s
Priest’s tale to discuss dreams, supposedly in order to both satisfy
his own interest and also stimulate readers’. In this tale, Chanticleer
and Pertelote stood for opposite opinions and thus argued whether
they should believe in dreams or not. In their discussion, a variety
of references proposed enable us to understand better of medieval
views of dreams. No matter which point of view, it implies that
dreams are closely associated with medieval life.